MamminaBooks

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Prey for Daughters

A Short Story by David V. Mammina

Corban Delaney, a small town sheriff in
western Oklahoma, heard the thump just outside his office and knew he had a big
town problem.In the heavy heat of the
early morning, he put down his coffee and sighed in his deputy’s
direction.They then both shared a jaded
stare, hearing her already arguing with the law about the condition of her
potential bounty.In but moments, Kaiya
Kay charged into his office with a gritty appeal for getting paid.Pursued by two of the sheriff’s agents, Kay
marched up to Delaney’s desk.Before she
could lay her dirty hands onto the wood, Lee, Delaney’s most trusted deputy,
stood in her way and put up his hands, “That’s close enough, Ms. Passover.”

A shot at her daunting reputation for
slaying outlaws in the dead of night, Kaiya Kay stopped in her tracks and put
her hands on her hips but inches from Lee’s face.Her skin was very fair, if not pale white,
sporting lips with a bluish hue to them as if she had just come out of an ice
box.Her black boyish hair was a
deliberate mess, topping off the stark black and white contrast to her
countenance.Donned in a tight worn
duster of weathered black, Kay sucked her teeth and waited anxiously for them
to go through the motions.With the door
opened to the porch and road out front, Sheriff Delaney easily saw Kay’s
latest prey lay dead inside a frayed body bag.His head and chest exposed, the infamous bandit had been shot in the
throat.Delaney could see that from his
seat.

“Well, hell, woman.”He groaned, “Here we go again.Is that who I think it is with a giant bloody
hole in his neck?”

Not interested in looking back at her
bounty cadaver laid out beside her wagon and pair of horses, Kay answered
bluntly, “He fired on me.”

“They always fire on you.”Delaney riposted heatedly, “McCarthy was
supposed to be taken alive—alive for a reason.”

The agents outside covered up McCarthy when
a lady was approaching.Kay had returned
while looking back this time, “I asked nicely.He just wasn’t a nice guy.”

“You ain’t gettin’ a dollar for this one,
Kay!”Delaney jumped up from his seat
and hollered, “That man was wanted alive for interrogation!He alone isn’t worth the spit in my mouth!McCarthy is a squealer—a notorious
talker!That poor sap would’ve sung a
song so loud, we would’ve run in the whole gang!But, instead, you present me with another
dead body!Well, missy, this one’s the
last!You’re done from here on out!”

While a young lady desperately tried to
enter the sheriff’s office, the agents outside held her up until the heated
engagement was through.When she put up
a convincing argument about the dreadful heat, they allowed her to sit inside
and wait.There, the well-dressed woman
watched the fiery exchange from the bench, taken aback by the whole scene.Though she came for an emergency, there was
no cutting in to this fight.She would
regretfully have to wait until the storm had passed.

Lee looked through the bounty hunter to
gaze at the young lady sitting in the bench for her turn.Her brown eyes beamed out from behind the
delicate wisps of her long brown hair, cascading about the sides of her olive
face.Wearing a casual dress for a hot
weekend, the bottom rim had been catching dirt.Her shoes, too, were flat, but overcome with dirt.She had been trudging in areas no proper
woman should have to visit.Keeping only
a hand fan to keep cool and a small sack of miscellaneous things under her
seat, the girl returned his gaze and then winced to the side.

Then, Lee found himself back into the
frenzied mix, hearing the sheriff gripe back at Kay, “And why does every one of
your bounties return with holes in their throats?That your calling card?”

“When a hostile shoots to kill, I
communicate in the language they understand.”Kay fired back, “You don’t bring home a live pig for dinner!”

Sheriff Delaney was ready for it,
shouting, “But you bring a live cow when you want a steady flow a’ milk!You robbed Mainstay of that, already!So, I’ll communicate with you in the language
that you understand!Show your pale, pasty face in this town after
tonight and we’ll shoot you—we’ll shoot you dead!”

Affronted, Kay scowled at them both,
knowing that the threat was a promise.Lee pointed back out at the door for her to move on with her horse-drawn
wagon, staring her down with daggers in his eyes.She smiled in disgust, turning away and
heading out for the heat empty-handed.Walking
out, she met eyes with the young olive-skinned lady sitting in awe.Before she could even think about her
attractive features, Kay dealt with Delaney’s last tip, “And get rid of that
heavy black duster!It’s a burning hell
out there!You crazy, or something?”

“But my heart is so cold, sheriff.”Kay retorted as she walked for the door,
taking a last look at the lady before stepping over the cadaver to return to
her wagon.Turning her body to look at
the ominous woman angrily flip on her hat from inside her wagon of steeds, the
lady held her beating heart.Whether it
was the touch of fear or regard, Kay had a presence she had never experienced
before.No woman kept herself quite like
that from where she lived. A sinister, yet eccentrically heroic character, Kay
left her spellbound.When the bounty
hunter had moved out, an agent cleared his throat from the lady’s side and
gestured for her to meet the sheriff.

“Now, little lady, what brings you down to
these parts?”Sheriff Delaney said as he
tiredly returned to his seat, “You’ll have to forgive that messy spout.These things happen around this town.Which leads me to ask, again, what a lovely
girl like you—”

“My younger sister’s being held hostage,
kept against her will, in a giant house just outside of Blackwell!”She yelped it out all in one breath, frantic.

Able-bodied men carried the outlaw’s corpse
away while Delaney and Lee were left speechless, digesting the young woman’s
desperate plea.Taken aback, the sheriff
put up his hands and leaned back in his chair, saying defensively, “Whoa,
now.Slow down, kid.What’s this about your sister?”

Lee retrieved a notepad and put his pencil
to the page, anticipating a frenetic story from her.Starting from the beginning, Julia shared her
name and described what she knew about her sister’s captivity.Lee scribbled as fast as he could while she
mentioned her sister’s peculiar young lover and his connection to a large house
a few miles east.But the more she went
on about him and the strange house, Delaney held her up and interjected
wearily, “Wait a minute.Your sister
willingly visits another man’s home with her boyfriend and never comes
back?Is that where your story is
headed?”

“He’s a doctor, she said.”Julia replied, fidgeting with her hands,
“I’ve seen it a few times—a big high ranch house.”

That’s when Julia saw the immediate change
in their demeanor.Both Delaney and the
deputy turned to look at each other in brief distress.The heat crept up on them, promptly
moistening their brow.Julia was not a
naïve girl.She felt the floor drop from
underneath her, realizing that they knew more than they were telling.Outraged by the tense stillness, Julia
couldn’t help but cry out, “Hello?My sister!We have to ride down there and break her the
hell out!”

Suddenly restless, Sheriff Delaney said,
“Now, listen here, missy.Dr. Barley is
one of our greatest assets around here.He’s a reputable man.Four days
out of the week, he visits and freely—”

“I don’t care if he raises the dead!”Julia countered furiously, holding back tears
brooding over her sister’s fate, “If you know that man, you need to break down
his damn door and pull out my sister!She’s all I’ve got left!It’s
us!It’s just us now!”

“Okay!Alright, now!”Delaney rose from
his seat and came around to meet her in front of his desk, “We can’t just raid
a respected man’s private residence because of a girl’s tip, alright?There are some things that don’t make a lick
a sense right now and I’ll need a lot more outta’ you.I can have an agent make a visit with you
tomorrow at the doctor’s home, if that’s who we’re even talking about here, okay?Until then, you need to breathe and give me a
better story.”

“You’re safe here in Mainstay, ma’am.”Lee came in closer to her, wishing he could
put his dry fingers into her light brown hair.Julia cringed at the thought of that man nearing any closer.The way he looked at her, undressing her with
his lifeless eyes.She heard nothing
else the sheriff had said as he gave empty excuses for a man she never knew.Because she blamed herself enough for
allowing Kit to elope for nights on end with the young drifter, Julia was not
willing to go through the motions with the speculative law of Mainstay.Nothing felt right.It wasn’t the reaction she had expected from any
town’s sheriff’s office.

“We’ll put you up for the night at the inn
just down the road.Any open room on the
second floor is paid for by the sheriff’s office, alright?”Delaney tried to reassure her, holding her
arms gently, “You get your sleep and then join my most trusted officers in
paying a good visit at Dr. Barley’s place.If something ain’t right, they’ll be right on him like dew on a lily.”

Dew shakes off lilies pretty easily.Julia gave in to their pony show and agreed
to stay the night, taking a signed voucher from the sheriff for a free room at
Booker’s Inn.Having fled all night from
the watchful eyes of the evil house, Julia found herself at the mercy of Mainstay.Her last hope was catching a ride back home
to Enid and employing the law from there.But time was of the essence.There was a reason they were keeping Kit inside that prison of a
house.She needed to find out why.If Mainstay was not going to help her, then
she’d go elsewhere.There was no
confronting the doctor at his home alone.

She could still feel the deputy gawking at
her as she strolled down the gravel street escorted by one of the sheriff’s
officers.He took her through the town,
making the most of her lamentable stay.Showing Julia the Mainstay bank, town hall, one stationary store after
another, the officer tried hard to convince her that she came to a small town
with strong communal values.Julia only
saw an underdeveloped township, a base hole in the ground in comparison to
Enid.Across from the saloon, he
escorted her into the inn.Having passed
the small covered wagon with two horses at the trough, he should have known
that Oklahoma’s most infamous bounty hunter patronized the inn.

The agent carried her things inside with
her walking just behind.It was hardly a
well-appointed place, for Julia had seen better taverns back home and at
Blackwell.A small group of commoners
patronized the place, having breakfast or preparing to move on after a small
town’s sojourn.Leading her to the
concierge desk just to the side, he exchanged the sheriff’s voucher for a room
key upstairs.While the concierge gladly
obliged, Julia turned around to ogle the vacant bar with the anomalous bounty
hunter sitting by her lonesome, drinking some sort of clear liquor.Even the bartender kept his distance,
polishing some glasses off in the counter’s corner.

“Miss?”The feminine concierge offered her the free room key while her escort
took her things and motioned for her to follow him.In walking up the stairs, Julia had to look
upon the lone drinker again.The agent
caught her bending her neck to catch another glimpse of her.Again, someone had to break her away from her
stupor.

“This way, ma’am.”He waited by the room door as she unlocked
it, then saying as he followed her inside, “I wouldn’t get too involved with
that woman down there.As I’m sure
you’ve heard already, she’s no good.She’s a walking curse.”

While heading out the door, he told her, “That
woman is dangerous, like her father was before her.Have you ever heard of The Ashman?”

Almost anyone who had ears around a spooky
campfire heard the tale of the ill-famed “Ashman,” a self-proclaimed
vampire-hunter who had murdered and burned his victims through three
states.Having been tracked down in Broken
Bow, Vance Kay was caught in the act, attempting to burn another “vampire” out
of his world.He died but ten years ago
in his prison cell a crazed man, leaving behind a widow and a daughter.The man then whispered to her, “That’s his
daughter right down there.She’s just
like her father, a sick demented thing.Kay claims to be a bounty hunter, but she’s really a hired gun.The more she hunts, the more she becomes like
that sick man.Like father, like
daughter, if you ask me.”

It really did not make much sense for
her.The stories about The Ashman never
included his family, especially a daughter.Part of her didn’t believe the deputy, but the better part of her knew
that she was one thing for sure—a woman who hunts.Pondering her sister’s fate as she shut the
door, Julia knew that the little town she ran into was too small for a mission
so big.There was no time for red
tape.There was no time for politics.Hired gun or bounty hunter, Julia didn’t
care.She needed any one of them to find
out what happened to her only sibling.Maybe she did come to the right place after all.

Moments later, she opened the door a crack
to peek out at the bar below, hoping to still see the femme fatale.Crossing her fingers, she headed to the
wooden railing and peered down at the bar scene, seeing the hunter sitting
right where she had been moments earlier.Treating it as a sign from a just God, Julia took a deep breath and
fixed herself proper.Like before, she
connected eyes with her while headed down the steps.Kay returned her gaze all the way down.Julia ambled towards her, feeling the bite of
fear and foreboding chill run up her spine.Kay’s sharp eyes seemed to pierce straight through her soul.Having mustered all her courage, Julia sat in
the stool right beside her.

After an awkward pause, Julia blurted out,
“Hi, there.”

Kay, amused with her sudden company, took a
final gulp of moonshine and flicked the glass down the bar table, replying with
an alcoholic’s breath, “Is this for pleasure or for business?”

Discomfited by her vulgarity, Julia
initially blushed before gathering her nerve once more, replying, “I have a
perilous task for you—a matter of life and death.You can determine which that would be for
yourself, but I need someone who can pull the right triggers if it means saving
my sister from her captors.”

Squinting after processing her bold plea,
fighting through her light-headedness, Kay said, “Thought I saw you in Sheriff
Nottingham’s office.What happened to
that?He wasn’t interested in your
rescue mission?”

“He doesn’t believe me.”Julia was quick to respond, “And I suspect he
has connections to my sister’s captor.”

Inhaling her delicious fragrances and
hanging on every perfectly pronounced word out of her mouth, Kay said,
intrigued, “Sounds scandalous.Who has
your sister?”

“A doctor, I think.”She answered, probing her memory for
everything she learned about him, “Doctor Burley.My sister is being detained at Dr. Burley’s
place.”

“Barley, actually.”Kay sucked her teeth and tried shaking her
dizzy spell, “He’s the doctor that reaps the benefits from poor clients unable
to afford his many services.Should have
lost his practice many moons ago.”

“So you know of him?Who is he?Why would he have my sister?”Julia made a fist, boiling over with tension.Kay noticed.She even heard her heartbeat.

Taking the opportunity as it was provided,
Kay avoided becoming lost in her eyes and started, “Before we play this game,
you’ll need to buy me.”

Kay wanted to ask her for a one night
stand, a chance to take her to bed.A
selfish dream—the whiskey trying to take over. She said, instead, “One hundred dollars.Fifty before the job and fifty after it’s
done.Standard fare.”

She could have charged the girl five
hundred dollars based alone on her character trait and urgency of her
mission.Julia easily agreed and
stretched out her hand, ready to shake on the deal.Kay felt her adrenaline flow from the moment
she sat down next to her.Beginning to
whisper now, she told Julia to follow the necessary steps.Hanging on to her every design, Julia
listened carefully.It was not
difficult.Her instructions were to stay
in Mainstay for the day, retiring to bed early.Hours after nightfall, Kay pledged to call upon her at her door.It was then that the first payment was
due.

From there, the remainder of the mission
came to light.Kay needed all the
details.When was Julia’s sister held
hostage?Where was the doctor’s
residence?Who else was involved?And so on.Julia was easy to agree to everything.She followed every detail.Sneaking into Kay’s tight wagon of supplies, goodies and boxes she was
not permitted to touch, Julia made the sign of the cross lying on her
back.Kay then rode out of town in the dead
of night, leaving the stenches and depravity of Mainstay for good.

While on the venture out, Kay felt the law snooping
on her.Her senses were good.Shaking his head, Lee said from his
wicker chair, “See that?Just like they
said.Ms. Passover definitely has that girl in
that wagon.No doubt about it.”

Looking on from the porch, Sheriff Delaney said,
“We should have put all our men on watch for that woman.I had a feelin’ this could happen.I just had a feeling.”

Hanging his head down, stewing, Delaney
proclaimed, “Follow them.Take three of
your best.Don’t let them do anything
stupid, you hear?”

Heading out to assemble his men, Lee turned
to ask shrewdly, “Permission to kill ‘em if I have to?”

Feeling the heavy burden of the caustic
turn of events, the sheriff could not risk the doctor, or his business, being
disturbed.Rubbing his eyes first,
Delaney said, “Just do what you need to do.They’re too close now anyway.Make it clean, quiet.”

Lee nodded his head and was off.

*Stay connected to read part 2 of 3 in a few days...Find out who's really the good, the bad and the ugly in the next installment.

Friday, March 11, 2016

Prey for Daughters

by David V. Mammina

Two hours later, Kay set up a small
campsite by a large lake.Supported by a
tiny campfire for some light, she suspended her lit lantern off the back of the
wagon and began sharpening her knives.Julia was soon awakened by the shearing sounds of blades as she tried catching
up on sleep inside the carriage.With
the feint light of the lantern and crackling sticks from the fire, Julia just
figured she join her temporary companion outside.One of the horses neighed as she stepped out
into the stillness of the night.Kay sat
with her back against a raised stump, sharpening her knives even as she came to
sit with her.

Julia looked over the small, popping fire as
she sat in the grass, considering the menacing aura of the hunter.Her striking eyes reflected the fire’s
flickering glow.Her dark duster
removed, Kay’s thin shirt hugged her form loosely.The blades caught the fire’s light just the
same, reminding Julia that there were many weapons in Kay’s arsenal.Like in Booker’s Inn, Julia felt that she had
to initiate the conversation or there would be no conversing at all.

“Aren’t you tired?”She asked with the blackness of the lake at
her back.

Placing sharpened knives of various sizes
and serrations onto an opened fabric, Kay replied coolly, “I slept during the
day.The heat made me tired.”

Julia nodded awkwardly before saying, “I’m
too anxious to sleep.”

Again, the horses were neighing from the
front of the wagon.Kay then said,
“That’s Phobos and Deimos.They have
been my steeds since the beginning—my only friends.”

Rolling up the array of blades brandished
out before her, Kay replied bluntly, “My business is population control.”

“You hunt people.”She said amid the crackling fire.

“The bad ones.The broken ones.”Kay took out her revolver from inside her old
duster laid out next to her, “Unlike my father, The Ashman.”

Julia was frozen.Kay, in beginning to clean her six shooter, heard
her heart rate increase.She smelled her
fear, nearly tasting it in her mouth.It
was an erotic sport, at times.Instead
of leaving her in her trepidation, Kay coldly explained, “There are stories
that follow us like shadows.Even though
you cannot see them in the dark, they’re still there, ready to torment you
after a fragment of light.My father is
one of those stories—one of those shadows that has followed me throughout my
life.He was a vampire hunter, or so he
thought.Even now, every snap of the
fire calls ‘murderer.’You see, they all
have their stories, girl.They know
nothing.What you heard in that inn was
but a tale of a tale from a taleteller.If you really knew my father, then anxiety would be the last thing that kept
you from your sleep.”

Her eyes gleamed with an anger tested
through years of nights such as these.Julia could feel her skin crawl under her day old clothes.She couldn’t believe she entrapped herself
into believing that such a woman could rescue her sister from captivity.There was no escaping it anymore.Julia had run to Mainstay after her spooked
horse raced away from her just the night before, not far from the lake behind
her.Sitting across from such a daunting
woman put her into a sudden panic, fearing for her safety.

Finding her mettle, as she often did
throughout her life, Julia said, “My father was hardly a saint.He abused my mother.He abused us—my sister and I.Abuse can have many different forms and my
father was dedicated in all of them.I
had to serve as my sister’s mother, guardian and caretaker for most of my adult
life.He left us alone when I stood up
to him.”

Kay knew she was telling the truth.Underneath all her beauty and fine clothing,
there was a scarred child and war-torn warrior dueling it out for the external
show.She detected it now.It only made her more desirable.Ogling her from across the fire, she asked,
“Where is your father now?”

“Enid cemetery.”Julia replied boldly, “That’s why we’re
here.I’d travel with the daughter of a
vampire hunter if it meant finding my sister and bringing her home.”

Taking the next step in her dark
confessions, Julia riposted in a hesitant whisper, “I already have.”

Kay held her revolver tightly then, pushing
in the last bullet with her thumb.She
was telling the truth yet again, trusting the hunter to handle her bad secret
responsibly.Having finished loading her
gun, Kay rested it on her inner thigh and asked, “And what if this is all just
a big misunderstanding between your sister and someone else?”

Changing her disposition after taking one
of her deep breaths, Julia said, “I want to make it very clear, Ms. Kay.I don’t want any trouble.I just want her back safely.”

Silent, Kay returned the revolver to the
inner pocket of her duster.She then
brought a bag of hay to her steeds, feeding them as Julia sat there by the
fire.Just when she turned her body to
look out at the black lake, Kay spoke, “Barley’s house is just up the way.We’ll scout around before sunup.Try to get some rest.”

Running her fingers through her brown hair,
Julia scratched her scalp nervously and returned to the wagon.Before swapping the starry night for the
cramped bedroll, she called from the side of the carriage, “What if the sheriff
looks for me in the morning and I’m—”

“No one’s looking for you in
Mainstay.”Kay said, “That page has
turned.”

Julia, after a last look out at the dark of
night, nothing for miles, attempted to find some sleep.There was no promise of tomorrow.She juggled the many scenarios of the coming morning,
each one worse than the next, as she laid her head.She shared too much with the bounty hunter,
wondering why she did.She appeared too
vulnerable.When Kit was free, could
they really distance themselves from Kaiya Kay and Mainstay?She tried to fall asleep, knowing that she
made a deal with a stark stranger for the sake of her loved one.Only God knew what the morning would
bring.As for Kay, she petted her
steeds’ heads and stared out into the night, anticipating Delaney’s posse not
far behind.

Flashes of a bloody, screaming massacre
rushed through her head as she slept.A
dream so vile and dooming could make any hard man awaken to a moistening
tremor.Julia burst from her sleep and
whimpered, moving sweaty hair out from her eyes.In trying to become accustomed to her
surroundings, she felt about and then looked down by the end of the wagon.She squealed when she saw Kaiya Kay standing
at the opened back of the carriage, detaching a heavy duster of some kind from
the boot.They typically brushed the
ground as the wagon went along, wiping away track marks from the dirt.It was still dark and the crickets were
singing loudly.

While Julia held her heart in sheer terror
after waking up from her nightmare, Kay asked, “What happened to your mother?”

Confused and shaken, she could only utter,
“What?Where are we?”

“Your mother.”Kay repeated, rolling up the duster and
packing it behind the boot of the wagon, “You never mentioned what happened to
her.”

“Look, I shared too much with you last
night.” She said, defensive, “I paid you for a job and I want to see it
through.Where are we?”

Extending her hand for her client to exit,
Kay answered in full garb of pinched hat and black duster, “We’re here.It’ll be morning soon.”

“The house?”Julia took her hand and climbed out
guardedly, “Where is it?”

“Just up the hill behind us.”Kay replied amongst the crickets, “We are
where you were before you ran to Mainstay.”

She was right.Julia felt naked in her eerie clairvoyance,
remembering where she was when spying on the suspect house one night
earlier.She had to ask, “How did you
know that?”

Telling her straight, Kay declared, “I
smelled you here.”

Again, Julia retreated into herself, her
blood pumping faster through her vessels.Trying to change the attention to her sister, she composed herself and
said, “What do we do now?”

Looking like she was heading into a
gunfight, Kay checked her blades and guns concealed within her duster.Phobos and Deimos were gone, as if they
evaporated from the hitches.Kay never
left her friends to wait in compromising situations.She never wanted them to suffer.The same for the girl she felt attraction
for.Even just touching her delicate,
but able hand, was electrifying.Then
she told her, “You will wait inside the wagon for me to return.Once I’m finished scouting the area, I may
need you again.As you said, this is my job and I’m good at it.”

Not satisfied, Julia returned agitated,
“And what about Kit?If you see her,
what will you do?”

“Bring her out.”She said.

“You’re a hunter of people.”Julia proclaimed, “But, this is not a time to
hunt.This is a time to rescue her, even
if she’s fine and in love or cooking breakfast or whatever—she needs to be
taken out of that place.”

Fixing her hat to lean just over her eyes,
Kay started up the hill, saying, “You hired a hunter of people, girl.If you want to see your sis again, you’ll let
me be.”

There, holding her forehead in angst, Julia
sat on the open end of the wagon and slightly rocked herself.Watching Kay sneak up the grassy hill and
disappear over the black peek, she was sure that all bets were off.They crossed the Rubicon together.All the questions assailed her mind
then.How was she going to pull her sister
out?Could she convince her to
leave?Would she pummel her way in and
out?What if the law of Mainstay found out?It was a roll of dice.

From the top of the hill, Kay overlooked
the isolated house of Dr. Barley and the city of Blackwell in the far distance
lit by lanterns.In heading down to
reach the fence line of the doctor’s property, she saw two loutish men laughing
together under a single porchlight.It
didn’t fit into the puzzle of things, but the more she glared at them from
afar, she focused in on what they were laughing over.She stumbled upon McCarthy’s bandit
brothers.A pair of roaches like them
meant there were more inside.The Smiley
Smuts patronized Barley’s place.The
question remained, however.Were they
bandits or customers this night?

Unable to collect their bounties at
Mainstay, Kay was eager to cash in big after it was all over in Blackwell.But, first, her real priority.Morning was but an hour or so away, so there
was no time to wait them out.In a
selfish way, she wanted it like this.Stealth
driven, Kay ran along the head of the hill and then crept down the knoll to leap
over the perimeter fence, trespassing the Barley residence. Dashing along the side of the large home, Kay
hugged the edge of the front porch to spy on the two Smut bandits still
laughing like drunken idiots.Sadly, for
them, she needed to make her way inside without eyewitnesses.

With a fast flick of her wrist, Kay cast a
small throwing knife through the lantern hung over their heads.Before they could handle their alarm, Kay
overwhelmed them in the dark.She rushed
in and slit one of their throats, then stabbing the other in the eye
socket.In but seconds, they were slain.Kay effortlessly dragged their corpses off
the porch and nudged them against the house.She rummaged through their pockets, finding wads of cash and stolen
jewelry.One of them had a revolver
fully loaded.She claimed it as her own,
shoving it into a deep inner pocket.With the two bandits out of her way, Kay darted for the rear of Barley’s
home unopposed.

It was a bad luck evening for the Smiley
Smuts.Kay only prayed that Kit did not
share the same luck, if only for Julia’s sake.Making it to the back property, seeking a shady way to break inside, her
keen sense of smell consumed her.The
foul aroma had come from the cellar doors.It was a stench any feral creature could catch, but Kay knew it as
rotting flesh.Staggered by its potency,
she pulled off the lock with just her grip and entered the cellar with a long serrated
knife at the ready.The odds of Julia’s
sister being brought out alive suddenly took a putrid dive.

Upon entering the doctor’s basement, she unknowingly
interrupted breakfast between three ravenous dogs.They easily noticed her intrusion, though
only one of them charged to attack her.She did not know dogs, let alone which kind came charging to maul her in
a bloody snarl, but Kay had no patience for a bad one.As it bounded to take a mangling bite out of
her throat, she forcefully took it by head and snapped its neck with a savage aggression.That caught the attention of the other dogs,
compelling them to take their meal outside.They hurriedly ran passed her with chunks of meat in their jaws, running
out of the cellar without delay.When
they raced passed her, Kay recognized the red meat in their mouths.Human meat.

Taking no chances, she sheathed her knife
and brought out the revolver.The new
depravity of the circumstances made her gnash her teeth in disgust—in a bitter
rage.If there came any other body
before her that was not Kit she determined to kill them. By the inspection of the bloody massacre left
behind by the hounds, as well as its stink and taste, could not have belonged to
Julia’s sister.It had essences of an Apache
or Cherokee male.Controlling her
nerves, Kay growled and headed for the stairs up into Dr. Barley’s home.

*Stay
connected to read the climactic conclusion in a few days...Find out who's really the
good, the bad and the ugly in the final installment.